1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a driving method of a non-volatile memory element and a non-volatile memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with progresses of digital technologies, electronic devices such as portable information devices and information home electric appliances have been developed to provide higher functionalities. With achievement of the higher functionalities of these electronic devices, semiconductor elements incorporated into the electronic devices have been developed to achieve further miniaturization and higher speeds. Among them, the use of a high-capacity non-volatile memory device, which is represented by a flash memory, has been expanding at a high pace. Moreover, as a non-volatile memory device in next generation which may replace the flash memory, a non-volatile memory device including a variable resistance non-volatile memory element having a characteristic in which its resistance value changes reversibly in response to an electric signal, has been studied and developed.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2004-363604 discloses a non-volatile memory device which is of 1T-1R or 1D-1R type and includes a transistor formed on a substrate and a data storage section connected to a drain of the transistor, and comprises a data storage material layer in which a resistive characteristic of the data storage section which occurs in a predetermined voltage range is completely different from a resistive characteristic thereof which occurs in another voltage range. This publication also discloses as examples of a variable resistance material layer which may be used as the data storage material layer, a transition metal oxide layer such as a nickel oxide layer (NiO), a vanadium oxide layer (V2O5), a zinc oxide layer (ZnO), a niobium oxide layer (Nb2O5), a titanium oxide layer (TiO2), a tungsten oxide layer (WO3), or a cobalt oxide layer (CoO).
According to W. W. Zhuang et al., “Novell Colossal Magnetoresistive Thin Film Nonvolatile Resistance Random Access Memory (RRAM)”, IEDM Technical Digest, pp. 193-196, December 2002, PCMO (Pr(1-x)CaxMnO3) is used as the variable resistance material layer.